Adeline Chapman

From 1916, as president of the NCS, she attended the Consultative Committee of the Women's Constitutional Suffrage Societies: the aim of the Consultative Committee was successfully realized in the Representation of the People Act 1918 which gave the right to vote to women aged over 30 for the first time.

By 1881, the marriage had failed and Adeline petitioned for divorce, citing her husband's adultery: however, the law was not on her side and her case was dismissed.

[1] On 30 December 1899, Adeline married Cecil Maurice Chapman (1852–1938), a cousin of hers, during a service at St Margaret's Church, Westminster: the service was precided over by Henry Scott Holland assisted by the groom's brother Hugh Chapman.

[4] Cecil was a barrister, served as a Moderate Party councillor for Chelsea on the London County Council from 1896 to 1898, and was a Metropolitan Police magistrate from 1899 till he retired in 1924.

In 1909, in reaction to the force feeding of suffragette prisoners, she decided to devote herself to campaigning for women's suffrage.

[1] Chapman believed the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), the main suffragist organisation, was insufficiently effective.

This committee was set up in response by the government's proposal to extend the right to vote to more people after the end of the First World War.